Sol Duc to Bogachiel Day 3

This was by far the most exciting day of the trip. Little did we know when we awoke we would penetrate the thickest vegetation, have our closest encounter with wildlife and traverse the largest trail obstruction… for a moment all at the same time.

As we left Twenty-One Mile camp the trail gradually descended through pristine old growth forests and crossing streams. As we reached lower elevations the trees became bigger and bigger as did the rest of the vegetation. Eventually we realized we were swimming through a sea of green leaves. The trail was a barely recognizable brownish hair on the forest floor. Despite the fact that it wasn’t raining the water clinging to everything clung to us, soaking our clothes and shoes. Fortunately nature graced us with a treat, wild blueberries everywhere! For a couple of hours the conversation consisted of “Oh my feet are so wet! Hmmm blueberry…”

Suddenly the wall of green dissipated to reveal a gaping ravine at least 12 ft deep and 150 ft wide. This was not on the map. It looked like an explosion had been directed down the hill towards the river, obviously a mudslide. Massive trees and boulders lay strewn like toys up and down the path of destruction. With no other option readily available we found a part we could climb/slide down and wiggled our way through the maze of broken branches and fallen logs to the other side. Now in the bottom of the ravine the opposite side was much steeper, 20-30 ft. and comprised of mostly sand making it very hard to get up. Along with that we had no idea where the trail actually was. While we were standing there trying to figure out what to do I looked down the trench to a log maybe 100ft away and saw this


My first thought was I should have spent the money on the bear mace. My second thought was that we were trapped with our backs against a sand cliff. The third was that the bear was heading in the opposite direction (phew). With some effort, cursing and singing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey we did get up the embankment and back on the trail.

We were very relived that evening when we pitched camp. I built a momentous fire to dry all of our clothes, boots, insoles, etc… We ate a ton of lentils and chocolate and went to bed.